Combined code recorder and selector



NQVQ 24 1959 x, LENS 2,914,19?

\C'OMBINED CODE RECORDER AND SELECTOR Filed Aug 29, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet l l n ventor E130. Lens A ttorney Nov. 24, 1959 G. x. LENS 2,914,197

COMBINED CODE RECORDER AND SELECTOR Filed Aug. 29, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inventor t vuben W A Home y United States Patent COMBINED CODE RECORDER AND SELECTQR Georges Xavier Lens, Antwerp, Belgium, assignor to Internatlonal Standard Electric Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Application August 29, 1957, Serial No. 681,067 Claims priority, application Belgium October 27, 1956 7 Claims. (Cl. 214-11) -:':The invention relates to article sorting and more particularly to improvements to a combined code recorder and: selector'suitable for mechanically recording information pertaining to the destination of an object, such as alet'ter, which is processed through to a sorting machine.

More particularly, the invention relates to a combined code recorder and selector for the control of a sorting machine aof the type comprising a plurality of sets of pair's'of flat bars, i.e., a recording bar and a selecting bar, having adjacent long edges, both displaceable in the sameplane parallel to the direction of advancement of an endless conveyor carrying the recorder, and the various pairs being aligned in a direction perpendicular to said plane, one recording bar in each set being initially displaced to an' operative position to record a particular code, a recording bar longitudinally displaced to the operative position placing the paired selecting bar under the sole control of a common transfer device coupling adjacent sets of pairs of bars and which is operated upon an operated pair of bars in the previous set being released due. to the operated selecting bar in said previous set having met ;a fixed stop. member along the conveyor path and in the lineof travel of said operated selecting bar, and thereby causes the operation of said paired selecting bar which, when it is part of the last set of pairs of bars, is then able to meet and operate an electrical contacting device to extract the recorded information and thus control the sorting process, the contacting device being located along the conveyor path and in the line of travel of said paired selecting bar in said last set and thereafter be released.

A combined code recorder and selector is known from my US. Patent 2,807,370, issued September 24, 1957, and the gradual use of the information initially stored on the recorder, or in other words, the selection in stages, has the advantage of greatly reducing wear, even more so if, as fully explained in said application, the recorder instead of being directly associated with an object carrier ofwhich a plurality are mounted on an endless conveyor delivering the objects to their respective destinations, is mounted on an auxiliary endless conveyor of smaller size but synchronized with the main object conveyor, whereby the recorders travel at a slower speed than the carriers.

In this known arrangement, the recording bar is joined to its-paired selecting bar by a spring so that the selecting bar tends to follow a displacement of the recording bar but is initially restrained from doing so by the common transfer device controlled from the previous set of pairsof bars. A recording bar longitudinally placed into its operative position is held therein by a spring controlled latching device used in common for all recording bars in a set. After the selecting bar corresponding to the operated recording bar having been able to follow the latter to also reach its operated position due to the 2,914,197 I Patented Nov. 24, 1959 temporary operation of the common transfer device from the previous set of pairs of bars, the release of the operated pair of bars will then occur by way of a slight tilting of both bars in their common plane. The operated selecting bar is the one which will hit a fixed stop member and will then slightly swing carrying in this movement the operated recording bar so as to disengage the latter from the common latch member. Thereafter, both bars slide back practically longitudinally to their respective normal positions.

Apart from the advantage of readily releasing the bars, the tilting movement also ofiers the possibility of a simple common transfer mechanism since when an operated selecting bar slightly swings out as a result of hitting a fixed stop member, it slightly rotates the common transfer device which will then displace that selecting bar of the next set whose recording bar has previously been operated.

In the case of the pairs of bars in the last set, however, the selecting bars no longer meet a fixed stop member but cause movement of electrical contact springs which an operated selecting bar must close to ensure the delivery of the object, to which the recorder was temporarily associated, to its destination; this by the closure of an electrical circuit involving the spring con tacts and operating arelay which opens the object carrier. This means that the restoring springs permitting the temporary tilt must be strong enough to first enable the selecting bar to actuate the spring contacts, and then to yield to permit the release of the operated pair of bars. This is essentially a marginal arrangement requiring a particularly careful design of the spring arrangements.

An object of the invention is to provide a novel arrangement of pairs of bars for the last set in a recorder of the type disclosed in said aforementioned patent and such that the bars are not allowed any movements other than the longitudinal ones, which are perpendicular to the direction of advancement of a selecting bar mounted on the conveyor, whereby such a bar, when operated, may actuate with greater certainty the contact springs placed in its path.

In accordance with a first characteristic of the invention, a combined code recorder and selector as disclosed above, is characterized in that, a recording bar is longitudinally displaced to an unstable operative position against the action of a first restoring spring whereupon it displaces an individual latch member controlled by a second restoring spring and normally holding the paired selecting bar, which is urged towards the operated position under the action of a driving spring, and partially displaced longitudinally towards said position, which selecting bar is then placed under the sole control of said common transfer device restraining it from further longitudinal movement towards the operated position, while said partially displaced selecting bar holds its latch member in an inoperative position, the recording bar being to pivot in a plane parallel to the common plane of a pair of bars, said second restoring spring normally urging a notch in the free end of one arm against a first projection on the selecting bar, a second projection in the recording bar acting against the other arm during the temporary displacement of the recording bar so as to rotate the lever out of engagement of said first projection which slides along said one arm beyond said notch, until said selecting bar is fully restored to its normal position.

The abovementioned and other objects and characteristics of the invention and the manner of attaining them will be better understood from the following description of a detailed embodiment of the invention to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a partly sectional view of a mechanical code recorder showing a pair of bars in accordance with the invention and in the plane common to the two associated bars;

Fig. 2 is a view similar to that of Fig. 1 but after a temporary displacement of the recording bar to the operated position which is indicated by dotted lines;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to that of Fig. l but after the operation of the selecting bar;

Fig. 4 is a partial view of the bars shown in Fig. 1 together with the spring contact operating mechanism;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to that of Fig. 4 but with the selecting bar restored to its normal position by the action of the spring contact operating mechanism.

Referring to Fig. l, 1 represents the cross-section of the upper part of the frame of the mechanical code recorder, while 2 represents the lower part. Upper and lower are only used for the sake of convenience as these mechanical code recorders may be mounted on an endless conveyor such that they will alternately be in the position shown or in the upside-down position, this being of no consequence since none of the bars shown are operated by gravity. As more fully disclosed in various views of the abovementioned patent and in the corresponding description, both the upper and the lower parts 1 and 2 of the frame are slotted at 3 and 4 to permit the passage of the recording bar 5 and the selecting bar 6, respectively. The bars 5 and 6 are flat and lie in the same plane and have a thickness corresponding to the width of the slots. These two bars have contiguous edges such as 7 along which they can slide relatively to one another. In the arrangement of the abovementioned patent, the upper slots 3 are open at one end, so that when the recorder bar travels in the direction of the arrow 8, an operated selecting bar 6 upon meeting a fixed stop member can swing outwardly in a restricted arc through the opening of the slot 3. To allow the slight tilt which the bottom portion of the recorder bar 6 assumes, the bottom slot 4 which is a closed one, is designed as slightly longer than the total width of the two bars. The open upper slot 3 is adapted to permit an easy insertion of the bars in the frame upon assembly and a stop member such as 9 extends transversely across the recorder on the under side of the upper frame 1 to which it may be fixed by screws such as 10, the member 9 preventing undue swing in the slot 3 of the upper part of the selecting bar 6 out of the limits of the frame 1.

In the case of the last set of pairs of bars designed to actuate the spring contacts, this member 9 will, however, be chosen so that it does not allow any displacement of the selecting bar 6 in the opposite direction to that of the arrow 8. In other words, when the assembly is completed, the upper slots become in fact closed slots such as the bottom slots 4, and only longitudinal displacements of the bars in a direction perpendicular to that of the arrow 8 are permitted.

The upper and lower frames 1 and 2 are joined at various intervals, preferably between sets of pairs of bars by vertical cross-pieces such as 11 which are more fully detailed in said patent.

In the case of a SOO-destination sorting machine, for example, there may besix spaced cross-pieces 11- enclosing and separating five sets of pairs of bars, the first and the second set each containing five pairs, the third set containing two pairs, the fourth set containing five pairs, and the fifth and last set contains two pairs of bars of which one is represented in the figures. In this way, 5 5 2 5 2=500 different code combinations can be obtained with 5+5+2+5+2=19 pairs of bars. It will be noted that in this way, these sets of five and two pairs of bars readily permit working from an operators decimal keyset. Further, the fact that the last set contains only two pairs of bars instead of ten as in the above mentioned patent, permits the elimination of the extra pair of bars which was used to actuate the spring contact mechanism which could all be placed in a single plane mechanisms which could all be placed in a single plane belt instead of being positioned in ten parallel planes or lanes. In the present case, only two lanes, which is acceptable, will be used for locating the spring contact mechanisms.

The recording bar 5 has a lower shoulder 12 which normally rests against the inside surface of the lower frame 2 under the action of a spring 13 fixed to the lower frame 2 at 14 and to a projection 15 on the recording bar 5 which is therefore held in a well-defined rest position.

On the other hand, the selecting bar 6 is maintained in a well-defined rest position not under the action of a restoring spring, but under the control of a driving spring 16 which tends to move it in a direction away from the inside surface of frame 2 towards its operated position. At one end, spring 16 is fixed around a projection 17 on the selecting bar 6 which projection extends outwardly perpendicularly to the plane of the latter, while at its other end the spring 16 is fixed around a pin 18 which is housed in an opening of the fixed cross-piece 11, the slotted jaw 19 of which may be pressed against the main body of the cross-piece by means of a screw (not shown) to firmly hold the pin 18 in fixed position. Although the selecting bar 6 is normally urged by spring 16 to move upwards sliding along the recording bar 5, this is prevented by the individual latch member 20 having the shape of a fiat bell crank lever which is pivoted at 21, the pivot being maintained between the two vertical crosspieces such as 11 which enclose a set of pairs of bars, said pivot being fixed by a slotted jaw arrangement (not shown) similar to 19. A restoring spring 22 coiled around the pivot 21 has one end 23 fixed in a hole 24 of the lower frame 2 while its other end 25 presses against the upper edge of the arm 26 of the lever 20 normally urging it into a counter-clockwise direction. In this manner, the notch 27 at the end of the other arm 28 catches the projection 17 to prevent the selecting bar 6 from moving upwards.

The recording bar 5 will be operated by a temporary displacement in the direction of the arrow 29. The bar 5 may be cocked in accordance with the showing in Fig. 14 of said patent. A pin 30 extending outwardly perpendicularly to the plane of bar 5 will limit this vertical displacement upon meeting the inner surface of the upper frame 1. Another pin 31 extends outwardly perpendicularly to the plane of bar 5 at a point intermediate the pin 30 and the bottom portion of bar 5.

During the displacement of the recording bar 5 and as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, the pin 31 will press against the lower edge of the arm 26 of the lever 20 so as to rotate it clockwise against the tension of spring 25 until notch 27 disengages the projection 17. At this moment, the selecting bar 6 will move upwards but its ascension will be arrested by its nose 32 meeting the edge 33 of the common transfer device 34 controlled from the penultimate set of pairs of bars. This common transfer device 34 has substantially the shape shown in the abovementioned patent and it is rotatable around the pivot 21, under the action of restoring spring 35. This spring is held on the frame 1 in the hole 36 and at its other end in the hole 37 provided in the upper part of the common transfer device 34. As in the abovementioned patent, this common transfer device extends transversely across the set of pairs of bars which it controls. t

The common transfer device 34 is normally held in the position shown by a displaceable member common to the penultimate set of pairs of bars and which will be rotated clockwise also around an axis passing through the pivot 21 upon the operated pair of bars in the penultimate set being released. This will also produce a small and temporary clockwise rotation of the common transfer device 34 about its pivot 21 so as to release the selecting bar 6. The device 34 is operated in a manner similar to the operation of the catching pawl 15 in said patent and illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3 thereof.

Prior to this and as shown in Fig. 2, it will be noted that upon the recording bar 5 having been temporarily Y displaced (dotted lines) upwards, and the pin 31 having pivoted bell crank lever 20 clockwise, the fiat side of the extension 17 on the selecting bar 6 will have caught the right-hand edge of the arm 28 of the lever 20, thereby holding the latter in the position shown in Fig. 2, in which position it can no longer impede the ascension of the selecting bar 6.

Upon the common transfer device 34 being temporarily rotated clockwise, the selecting bar 6 will move upwards until it reaches the position indicated in Fig. 3, its pin 38 having become arrested by the lower surface of the plate 9. In this movement, the projection 17 slides along the right-hand edge of the arm 28, thus maintaining the lever 20 in the angular position already attained in Fig. 2 as a result of the upward movement of recording bar 5.

Referring to Fig. 4, the latter shows the code recorder and more particularly the raised selecting bar 6 as it is about to reach the contact springs 39 operating mechanism which consists of a straight lever 40 rotatable around a fixed axis 41 and integral therewith, so that the part 42 also mounted on the pivot 41 and integral therewith can follow the rotation of the lever 40 to close the contact springs 39. A restoring spring 43 extending between point 44 on the lever 40 and a fixed point 45 normally urges lever 40 in a counter-clockwise direction against a fixed stop 46.

A notch 47 of suitable shape is provided at the end of the lever 40 and the top part of the selecting bar 6 is slightly inclined as shown in order to ensure good cooperation between the bar and the lever notch.

As the recorder advances in the direction of the arrow 8, the lever 40 will be rotated clockwise and will thus cause the operation of the spring contacts 39. In so doing, the lever 40 reaches a substantially vertical position as shown in Fig. 5, while after reaching a certain angular position sufiicient to operate the contact, the selecting bar 6 starts to move downwards under a downward thrust exerted thereagainst by the portion 47a of lever 40 until it reaches its normal position as shown in Fig. 5 and which is also the position of Fig. 1. As it moves downwards, the nose 32 of the selecting bar 6 moves under the edge 33 of the common transfer device 34 and then its extension 17 catches under the notch 27 provided in the lever 20. Although this has not been shown, a suitable decoupling device limiting the rotation of the part 42 may be provided, using spring control, to avoid undue stress on the contacts.

It will be noticed, that with the construction described, as the upper tip of the operated selecting bar hits the lever controlling the contact springs, the horizontal reaction due to the impact has no efiect on the bar as it is nearly perpendicular to the axis of the driving spring, which is nearly vertical, holding the bar in the operated position. It is only gradually that a downward force exerted by portion 47a of lever 40 will occur driving the bar 6 back to normal, but by that time the rotation of the lever 42 will have been sufficient to operate the contacts 39. On the other hand, with the upper part of-the bar 6 able to depart from the vertical, as soon as its upper tip strikes the spring operating mechanism, there will be an immediate reaction tending to rock the bar about its lower end.

While the principles, of the invention have 3 been described above in connection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation on the scope of the invention, as set forth in the objects thereof and in the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A combined code recorder and selector for use in an article sorting system of the type wherein said combined code recorder and selector is adapted to be carried by an endless conveyor, comprising a frame, a plurality of sets of pairs of movable bars extending through said frame, at least one of said pairs consisting of a fiat recording bar and a flat selecting bar parallel thereto, each of said last named bars in a first common centroidal plane, said centroidal plane parallel to the direction of movement of said conveyor, all of said bar sets aligned in a second plane, said second plane being normal to said first plane, said bars movable in a direction normal to the direction of movement of said conveyor, latch means pivotally mounted on said frame for normally latching the selecting bar of said one pair, means coupled to the recording bar of said one pair for actuating said latch means out of latching relation with said selecting bar, means on said selecting bar for maintaining said latching means out of latching relation therewith after actuation of said latching means, means for returning said recording bar to initial position after actuation of said latch means, common transfer means for maintaining in normal position given selecting bars of said sets, including said one selecting bar after actuation of said latch means, means under control of the other selecting bars of said sets for moving said common transfer means out of normal maintaining position with respect to said one selecting bar, contact operating means in the path of said one selecting bar when moved in said normal direction along the route of said conveyor, said last named means including means for returning said moved selecting bar to normal position, said latching means adapted to re-latch said selecting bar after return thereof to its normal position.

2. A combined code recorder and selector as claimed in claim 1, wherein said latch means comprises a two arm bell crank lever, a latching notch in one arm of said lever, and wherein said means on said selecting bar for maintaining said latching means out of latching relation therewith comprises a projection extending transversely outward from said selecting bar, said projection adapted to co-act with said one arm of said lever.

3. A combined code recorder and selector as claimed in claim 2, wherein said projection normally cooperates with said latching notch whereby said selecting bar is maintained in normal position.

4. A combined code recorder and selector as claimed in claim 3, further comprising a first resilient element coupled between said frame and said one selecting bar for normally urging said bar to its actuated position.

5. A combined code recorder and selector as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a second resilient element coupled between said frame and said one recording bar for normally urging said bar to its normal unactuated position.

6. A combined code recorder and selector as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a third resilient element coupled between said frame and said bell crank lever, said third resilient element adapted to normally urge the notch in said one arm to engage said projection.

7. A combined code recorder and selector as claimed in claim 6 wherein said contact operating means comprises a rotatable lever, rotatable in the direction of said conveyor, said lever having a notched portion at the free end thereof defining a leading tooth and a trailing tooth, said one selecting bar adapted when in the moved position to partially rotate said last named lever due to movement of said conveyor, said trailing tooth comprising the means for returning said moved selecting bar 5 to normal position.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Eggleston Aug. 29, 1933 Lens Sept. 24, 1957 

